The judge who until a few weeks ago was in charge of the long-running San Onofre case before the California Public Utilities Commission has taken a job with a contractor to plant owner Southern California Edison.

A federal regulator has tightened restrictions on Wells Fargo & Co., requiring it to get approval to replace or hire new executives and make other changes, in the latest fallout over the San Francisco bank’s fake-accounts scandal.

The Southern California real estate market took a breather in September, with sales dipping slightly as the market entered a typically slower season amid price gains that have made homes less affordable.

In a ruling last week, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Prime Healthcare Services, the owner of several Southern California hospitals, to pay back wages to laboratory technicians, clerks and pharmacists, among other employees.

Federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees opened accounts in customers’ names without their consent.

James Rufus Koren and Jim Puzzanghera September 27, 2016

Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive John Stumpf will forfeit compensation worth about $45 million as the bank tries to appease angry lawmakers and regain the trust of customers amid the still-unfolding scandal over fake accounts.

Wells Fargo is already facing four potential class-action suits and could soon face more from customers, former employees and investors over the bank’s fake-accounts scandal. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

James Rufus Koren September 26, 2016

As beleaguered banking giant Wells Fargo & Co. deals with inquiries from federal prosecutors and scrutiny from lawmakers, it’s facing a growing number of civil lawsuits brought by customers and former employees.

ONTARIO >> Fitch Ratings said Monday it has revised its outlook for Ontario International Airport bonds from negative to stable, based on better passenger traffic and a healthy financial profile for the Inland facility.

Aggressive sales tactics by Wells Fargo & Co. employees led to a $185-million settlement package with federal and state regulators last week. Above, a branch in Miami. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Jim Puzzanghera September 12, 2016

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing next week on the aggressive sales tactics by Wells Fargo & Co. employees that led to a $185-million settlement package with federal and state regulators.

COLTON >> Former employees at the Ashley Furniture plant in Colton say they want justice and an apology over a recent mass layoff they see as a betrayal and retaliation for their failed attempt at unionization last year.

Calling it “outrageous” and “a major breach of trust,” local and federal regulators hammered Wells Fargo & Co. for a pervasive culture of aggressive sales goals that pushed thousands of workers to open as many as 2 million accounts that bank customers never wanted.

House prices continued rising in July, increasing from year-ago levels for a 51st straight month in Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire and the 50th straight month in Orange County, the CoreLogic Home Price Index showed Tuesday.

Several Southern California members of Congress urged the U.S. secretary of commerce to intervene in the worldwide supply chain havoc caused by the collapse of South Korean Hanjin Shipping Co., which has left local workers’ jobs in limbo and threatens to spoil the holiday season for retailers.

For years, state lawmakers have been trying to crack down on private meetings between utility companies and members of the California Public Utilities Commission after revelations that top officials and industry executives had frequent dinner dates, shared talking points and even sketched out details of the multibillion-dollar closure of a Southern California nuclear power plant during a secret rendezvous in a luxury hotel in Poland.

Enrollment in the insurance exchanges for President Obama’s signature health-care law is at less than half the initial forecast, pushing several major insurance companies to stop offering health plans in certain markets because of significant financial losses.

The U.S. economy grew less than previously reported last quarter on lower government outlays and a bigger depletion of inventories, capping a sluggish first-half performance propped up mainly by consumer spending.

California’s costly tax and regulatory policies have driven scores of businesses to leave the state, reduce their operations or curtail plans to locate here, according to a report from Spectrum Location Solutions. (Photo by John Valenzuela/The Sun)

California’s costly tax and regulatory policies prompted more than 10,000 businesses to leave the state, reduce their operations or curtail plans to locate here between 2008 and 2015, according to a report from Spectrum Location Solutions.

A consumer advocacy group accused oil refiners of intentionally keeping California’s gasoline prices higher than in the rest of the nation to bolster profits, despite growing inventories and falling wholesale prices.

Twice in recent decades CalPERS fell below 100 percent of the funding needed for promised pensions, and twice CalPERS climbed back. But since a $100 billion investment loss in 2008, the CalPERS funding level has not recovered.

Wholesale gasoline in California became the cheapest in the country this week, but that change has largely gone unseen at the pump, where consumers are still paying the highest prices in the continental United States to fill up their cars.

The U.S. economy expanded less than forecast in the second quarter after a weaker start to the year than previously estimated as companies slimmed down inventories and remained wary of investing amid shaky global demand.

Roger Ailes resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News Thursday, after days of speculation as to his future with the network after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against him by a former anchor, 21st Century Fox said.

In the waning days of summer in 2008, a convicted felon and his business partner leased office space on a seedy block near MacArthur Park. They set up a waiting room, hired an elderly physician and gave the place a name that sounded like an ordinary clinic: Lake Medical.

Robots rivet the side frame assembly on the body of a Revero electric car at the Karma automotive factory in Moreno Valley. Karma is the first car-building company in Southern California in decades. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Natalie Kitroeff June 29, 2016

Los Angeles has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs since 2007, casting a pall over the state’s economic recovery, according to a forecast released Tuesday by Chapman University.

A television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average, Friday, June 24, 2016. The DJIA dropped 611 points, or 3.4 percent, to 17,399 in heavy trading Friday. Stocks plunged in the U.S. and worldwide after Britain voted to leave the European Union. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The focus of the legal challenges, for now, is on three initiatives that the City Council adopted.

A legal battle over the World Logistics Center will continue through at least the summer as opponents and Moreno Valley square off over whether the city violated state law in approving three developer-backed initiatives.

Jacobs Engineering Group brings in $12 billion in annual revenue and employs some 64,000 people.

Natalie Kitroeff June 6, 2016

Jacobs Engineering Group, one of the world’s largest engineering companies, is preparing to move employees from its Pasadena headquarters to Dallas, becoming the latest major corporation to relocate significant operations from California to Texas.

A former CalPERS chief executive officer, Fred Buenrostro, was sentenced to 4½ years in prison last week for taking bribes, including $200,000 in cash, from a former CalPERS board member, Alfred Villalobos, who collected about $50 million in fees from private equity firms for helping them get investments from the big pension fund.

Employers in May added the fewest number of workers in almost six years, reflecting broad cutbacks that may raise concern about U.S. growth and prompt Federal Reserve policy makers to put off an increase in interest rates.

Food servers, who earn relatively little, will see strong job growth through 2020.

Los Angeles County will add hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next four years, most of them low paying, according to a report released Wednesday by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, which sat out California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act until this year, will not sell health plans on the state’s insurance marketplace in 2017, state and company officials said Tuesday.

CPUC worked with utility on legal strategy during San Onofre investigation

Even as it was preparing to review a $4.7 billion deal settling costs for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant, the California Public Utilities Commission was working behind the scenes to draft and send subpoenas on behalf of plant owner Southern California Edison.

A large shareholder of L.A. Times owner Tribune Publishing has questioned the company’s decision to turn down a buyout offer from Gannett and sell millions of new shares to billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

James Rufus Koren May 26, 2016

Another major Tribune Publishing investor is crying foul over the company’s rejection of Gannett’s buyout offer — even as two more advisory firms weighed in to give the board cover against a possible shareholder lawsuit.

The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistle-blower case against Prime Healthcare Services, adding significant weight to allegations of widespread Medicare overbilling at 14 of the company’s hospitals in California.

Reopening San Onofre nuclear settlement a ‘credit negative’

By Rob Nikolewski | May 17, 2016 – 2:35 p.m.

It’s not a ratings downgrade, but Moody’s Investor Service on Tuesday called reopening the financial details of the San Onofre nuclear plant shutdown a “credit negative” for the plant’s operator, Southern California Edison.

Gannett boosted its all-cash offer to acquire Tribune Publishing to $15 per share, raising the stakes after the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers earlier this month rejected an unsolicited $12.25-a-share bid.

Public records show that Brown has financial ties to a company that could profit greatly from shipping coal through Oakland.

Mike Rosati May 12, 2016

During a high-profile speech last July in Vatican City, Governor Jerry Brown told Pope Francis that “90 percent of the coal” reserves worldwide “can never be taken out of the ground” if the planet is to avoid a climate catastrophe. Brown’s remarks, which are posted on the governor’s official website, were hailed by climate change activists around the globe and further positioned Brown as a world leader in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Cadiz Inc. won a decisive courtroom victory Tuesday for its plans to transfer ancient groundwater in a remote part of San Bernardino County’s Mojave Desert to parts of Orange County and other locations.

The long-simmering scandal in the state Public Utilities Commission over a secret deal to stick ratepayers with most of the costs of shutting down the San Onofre nuclear power plant just got more interesting.